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Garage door sensor not working? Start here

Down, stop, back up, flashing light. That's the sensors talking, and around Amarillo the cause is usually something in the beam or an eye knocked out of line.

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Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate is free and you can say no.

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Home › Broken Garage Door Spring Repair

What the sensors are for

Since 1993 every opener has shipped with two small eyes near the floor, one on each side of the opening. One sends a beam, the other watches for it, and the moment the beam breaks during a close the door reverses. That reflex is what keeps a door off a child or a car bumper, so it's tuned to be jumpy.

A door that won't close with a flashing light is therefore an opener doing its job on bad information, not a broken opener. The work is finding out why the eyes can't see each other.

A house with an attached garage in Amarillo, TX

Read the lights first

  • Each sensor has a small LED. On most units one is green (the sending eye) and one is amber or red (the receiving eye).
  • Both lit steadily: the eyes see each other. The problem is elsewhere, usually the travel or force setting on the opener.
  • One flickering or dark: the eyes are out of line, something is between them, or a wire has come loose.
  • Both dark: no power reaching them. A loose wire at the opener, or a staple through the cable somewhere along the wall.

Those three states cover nearly every call. They also tell us what to put on the truck if you end up phoning.

A garage door roller in its track in Amarillo, TX
Tools Express Garage Doors carries for garage door repair in Amarillo, TX
A rusted-through bottom rail on an old garage door in Amarillo, TX

Five-minute fixes, in order

Work down the list; most doors are closing again by the second item.

  1. Clear the beamA trash can, a bike wheel, a cobweb, a leaf. Anything in the six inches above the floor between the two eyes trips them. Clear the space and try the door.
  2. Clean the lensesA dry cloth on both lenses. Wind-driven grit leaves a film on them, and a dull lens fails at dusk first.
  3. Check the alignmentEach eye sits in a bracket that bends easily. If one LED is flickering, loosen its wing nut, tilt the eye until the light goes steady, then tighten. A string pulled taut between the two brackets shows whether they're level.
  4. Look for sunLate afternoon sun straight into the receiving eye blinds it. If the door only misbehaves at one time of day, that's the cause. A short cardboard hood over the eye, or swapping the two sensors so the receiver faces away from the sun, fixes it.
  5. Follow the wireRun a hand along the thin sensor wire from each eye up to the opener. Look for a staple that has cut through the insulation, a splice that has come apart, or the terminal screws on the motor unit working loose.
The wall control on a garage door opener in Amarillo, TX

Closing the door tonight without the sensors

There is one built-in override: hold the wall button down, continuously, until the door is fully closed. Remotes won't do it; only the wall control. It exists for exactly this night.

Don't tape the eyes together on a shelf. It fools the opener and removes the only thing stopping the door landing on someone. Hold-to-close tonight, technician tomorrow.

When it isn't the sensors

Steady LEDs and a clear beam but the door still reverses means the opener has a different complaint. Reversing right at the floor is the down-limit set a touch too far. Reversing part-way, with a door that's heavy to lift by hand, is a spring that has lost tension tripping the force setting. Adjust the first; stop using the opener until the second is fixed.

Cold-weather-only reversing is the same thing: High-plains extremes, the door stiffens, the force setting trips.

Replacing the sensors

Eyes do die: water in the lens, a mower strike, a board that gives up. A matched pair for Chamberlain, LiftMaster or Genie is stock on the truck and takes about twenty minutes to install and align. They don't cross brands or generations; the label on the motor unit tells us which pair.

Damaged wiring gets rerun with clips instead of staples, which is why it doesn't come back.

The brackets matter as much as the eyes. Both sensors should sit at the same height, a few inches off the floor, and a bracket that has been bent by a car bumper will keep drifting out of line however often it's reset. If the same eye needs realigning every few weeks, the bracket is the fault, and it's replaced on the visit.

How the visit goes

Beam, lenses, alignment, wiring, in that order. A cloudy or dead eye gets a new pair. Before leaving, the technician disconnects the opener and lifts the door by hand, because reversing doors often have a spring problem hiding behind the sensor one. Free estimate across Amarillo and Canyon, Bushland.

Short visit, usually. The long ones are the doors that were out of balance for a year.

What people are told, and what's real

The opener is broken. The opener is fine; it's refusing to close on what looks like an obstruction. Fix what the sensors see and the opener behaves.

Just bypass the sensors. Don't. Hold the wall button to close it tonight, and get the eyes working tomorrow. A door without working sensors is the door that comes down on something.

New sensors mean a new opener. No. Sensors are a matched pair that plugs into the existing unit. Twenty minutes.

Questions we get asked

One sensor light is off and the other is on. Which one is bad?

Usually neither. The dark one is the receiver and it goes dark when it can't see the sender: alignment, dirt or something in the way. Fix those first; replace only if it stays dark with a clear beam.

The door closes fine with the wall button but not the remote.

That's not the sensors. If the wall button works normally without holding it, the remote has a battery or pairing problem. If it only works when held, the sensors are the cause.

Can I replace the sensors myself?

Yes, if you're comfortable with low-voltage wiring and can match the brand and generation. If not, it's a short visit and we bring the right pair.

The door reverses only in the afternoon.

Sun in the receiving eye. Shade it with a short hood, or swap the two sensors so the receiver faces the other way.

Is the estimate really free?

Free, across Potter County. If the sensors need replacing you hear it before anything is done.

Can you come out today?

Usually, yes. A door stuck open gets priority on the schedule.

Booking takes a minute

Around Wolflin and Canyon, Bushland, one call gets you a two-hour slot and a heads-up call before the technician sets off. Nobody on a phone judges a door they can't see.

Free estimate. Throughout Potter County, including Wolflin, Puckett, Southwest Amarillo, Canyon, Bushland, Borger.

Sensors still fighting you? We'll come and look

Two hours, not a day, and you'll get a call as the technician sets off. Free throughout Potter County. The estimate is free either way.

Prefer to talk it through? Call (806) 545-9374.

Get a real arrival window for your broken spring repair

Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate is free and you can say no.

Or just call (806) 545-9374 and talk it through.

The rest of the usual faults